Aerial Encounters on the Moor

The two Short-eared Owls that I saw hunting in rough grass fields on the moors today were involved in several aerial disputes over the territory and then their joint attention was diverted towards a female Marsh Harrier that occasionally passes through but they stopped short of any body contact on this powerful bird

Head-on Hunting

With a brisk wind from the South-East all day two Short-eared Owls on the high grounds were hunting into it and provided many opportunities for Head -on Hunting portraits

Hungry male Peregrine

On the south coast of Cornwall a hungry male Peregrine returns to its territory from a failed hunting mission

He calls to the female peregrine perched on a nearby cliff ledge looking to share her prey but he has arrived to late as she has already dispatched her prey and stashed what was left for later.

The male flies to one of the females cliff ledge stash points and gets lucky finding a half eaten carcass from the previous days hunting which keeps him going for now.

Its now time for him to return to his hunting while leaving me with a nice sequence of take-off images as he departs.

Stithians Southern Cut-off

I recently dropped into Stithians Reservoir southern cut-off hide looking for sightings of its illusive Water Rail.  The birds posted here all showed well and kept me busy as they fed at the feeding station and the Water Rail finally made a brief show along the water Margins long enough for me to capture half a dozen shots

Peregrine Take-Off

I was a little late arriving on location with the south Coast Peregrine this morning and this female had already hunted, plucked, eaten and stashed her prey but she did provide me with the very graceful take-off sequence in the three images posted below which I ended up merging into one final shot.

Buzzard on the Heath

A stiff southwesterly wind was just what this fine buzzard that was perched on a heathland stone wall needed to take off and hover hunt over rough grass fields.

The weather eventually added a little sunlight which was all that I needed to capture this lovely birds hunting behaviour in the sequence of images shown below.

Owls in Rough Grass

I saw just one Short-eared Owl on the high ground on Tuesday afternoon.   The winds were very light so to conserve energy the Owl was only making short low flights and hunting at every opportunity.

I saw it take and stash to voles in an hour without raising them above the grass line before it moved off across the moor to try its luck elsewhere.